Emigration of Men of Military Age.

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Document ID 9502165
Date 10-11-1915
Document Type Official Documents
Archive Queen's University, Belfast
Citation Emigration of Men of Military Age.;Hansard Parliamentary Debates, Series 5, Vol. LXXV, 10 Nov. 1915.; CMSIED 9502165
21602
    EMIGRATION OF MEN OF MILITARY
                AGE.

  73. Mr. BIGLAND asked the Secretary
of State for the Home Department if he
will say whether out of 500 third-class
passengers on the Cunard liner "Saxonia",
which sailed from Liverpool on 6th November,
nearly the whole of this number are
men of military age; will he inform the
House the respective numbers of English,
Scottish, Irish, and Welsh on board this
vessel of military age; will he state
whether the instructions to the agents of
the American liners "St. Paul" and
"New York", appointed to sail from Liverpool
13th and 20th November, respectively,
are that they can take no further
third-class passengers, as the ships are
full; and whether, in view of these facts,
his Department will stop all men of military
age from leaving this country for the next
two months?

  Sir J. SIMON: As the hon. Gentleman
will have seen from this morning's
newspapers, certain action has already
been provisionally taken to deal with the
matter to which he refers. I have been in
active consulation with the other Departments
concerned, and if the hon. Member
puts down a question in the course of a
day or two, I hope to be able to make a
more complete statement of what is being
done.

  In the meantime, let me say that the
figures for emigration from Ireland are
much below average; that so far as
there is any unusual movement during the
last week or two, it is not confirmed to any
one quarter of the Kingdom, and is, as I
happen to know, condemned by leaders of
public opinion in Ireland no less than
by leaders of public opinion in Great
Britain.

  Mr. JOHN REDMOND: On the question of
the nationality of these would-be
emigrants, might I ask the right hon.
Gentleman whether the following statement
which appears in a number of the London
papers is correct:-

 "The passports department of the Foreign
Office is daily crowded and all sorts of
excuses are being offered by young English
slackers to go abroad. The average number
of passports issued before the War was 30
a day. The applications now are nearer 500?"

  Sir J. SIMON: I am not able to confirm
those figures. I have had no opportunity
of investigating them, but my information
certainly is that the criticism is one which
arises not in reference to one portion of
the United Kingdom alone, and the
remedies that have already been decided
on and will be proposed will apply to the
whole United Kingdom.

  Sir C. KINLOUCH-COOKE: Did not the right
hon. Gentleman inform the House a
week ago that there was no occasion
whatever to take any action?

  Sir J. SIMON: No, I did not. What I
said was that the returns which were
available showed, as they did show, that
emigration on the whole is not so great
at the present time as in previous years.

  Mr. JOHN O'CONNOR: Can the right
hon. Gentleman state whether representations
have been made to him by bankers,
magistrates and others as to the abnormal
numbers of Englishmen of military age
applying for certificates of identification
for the purpose of applying for passports
to neutral countries for real or assumed
business reasons, and have any steps been
taken to investigate the bona fides of such
applications?

  Sir J. SIMON: I cannot answer my hon.
Friend about that without notice. I shall
be very glad to look into the matter now
that he has raised it.

  Mr. PENNEFATHER: Can the right hon.
Gentleman see his way to acknowledge
the patriotic action of the seamen
and firemen of the port of Liverpool -
(HON. MEMBERS: "Order, order!")

  Mr. O'MALLEY: Is the right hon.
Gentleman aware that for many years
in the West of Ireland where the land
is very poor and the Land Acts have not
been applied, a considerable number of
young men go to America, and that that
is the explanation of the presence of
those emigrants in Liverpool?

  Sir J. SIMON: No doubt what the hon.
Gentleman says is quite true, but the
material question is whether this is an
unusual movement, and what, if anything,
should be done to check it.